Tuesday, March 3, 2015Would You Like Some Crushing Debt With That Degree?
The for-profit college industry is less about teaching anybody anything than it is about creating debt -- debt that then be very profitably sold off in tranches -- and even aggregated into derivatives -- to banksters and wealthy investers. In no other country in the developed world are financiers and scam artists entrusted with managing the education commons.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015(1 comments)The Conservative Attempt to Rewrite the United States' Progressive History
There's a really good reason that conservatives are freaking out about what kind of history curriculum is going to be taught in our classrooms. And that's the simple fact that the history of the United States is the history of the continuous progressive transformation of this country. All the great accomplishments of US democracy, from the revolution itself to health-care reform, have been progressive accomplishments.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015Threat of Deadly Pathogens on the Rise Thanks to Climate Change
Unknown infectious diseases could pop up across the globe thanks to climate change. For example, there are sure to be unknown bacteria and pathogens that have been frozen in Arctic ice for thousands of years. But, if that ice melts, and those never-before-seen pathogens get released into the air, they could start new epidemics that we simply wouldn't be able to fight because we've never had experience with them.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015(3 comments)Why Gay Marriage Would Have Been Embraced by Our Founding Fathers
Gay marriage is simply the logical and appropriate extension of the idea that in a constitutionally limited democratic republic, a vital function of government is to protect the rights of minorities. It's called "civil rights." Gay marriage is a civil rights issue, plain and simple, and entirely in keeping with the egalitarian vision of this nation's Founders.

Friday, February 13, 2015(2 comments)Meet ISIS: Saudi Arabia's Newest Frankenstein
Saudi Arabia, and the other Sunni countries in the Middle East, have been financially and morally supporting the growing and evolving Sunni insurgency against Shias in the region for years. They have intentionally bankrolled groups whose mission it is to wipe out the Shia minority in the region. First they started with al-Qaeda, and then they bankrolled what became ISIS.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015(3 comments)Leaked Files Reveal New Bankster Scam
Despite laundering hundreds of billions of dollars illegally, helping out some of the world's most notorious killers and drug cartels, allegedly laundering for terrorist groups and moving money for customers in nations that the US has no diplomatic ties with, HSBC got off with a slap on the wrist, and a very light slap at that.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015(26 comments)Exposing the Republican Party's Sleazy Playbook to Destroy Social Security
It is clear that the GOP plan is to use this unnecessary, manufactured crisis as an opening to "reform" Social Security -- translated: cut and privatize. Thus, forcing Democrats to become the Social Security anti-Santa a different way. Democrats must accept neither the cut to disability payments, nor the entree to Social Security "reform."

Friday, February 6, 2015(1 comments)Fox News: PR Department for ISIS
The main thing that Fox News has to sell is fear. It's a giant fear-mongering machine that works really, really well. By airing the gruesome ISIS execution video, Fox News knew that it would be building fears over ISIS in the American people. By airing the video, Fox News became ISIS' new best friend. And by airing the video, Roger Ailes and Fox News are promoting terrorism.

Thursday, February 5, 2015(3 comments)What the Corporate Media Aren't Telling You About the TPP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP as it's more commonly known, is a public health disaster waiting to happen. If if the TPP goes through, real live breathing people (Doctors Without Borders estimates about half a billion of them) will effectively lose affordable access to the medicine they need to survive. And that's just one small provision.

Friday, January 30, 2015(7 comments)Billionaires Won't Be Happy Until the US Becomes Austerity-Ravaged Greece
Billionaires don't need a social safety net, and don't care if working-class Americans are thrown onto the streets to starve. If anything, doing that provides them with cheaper and more desperate labor. Billionaires don't want working-class Americans, or as they like to say, the "riff raff," to be anything but so terrified they'll take any kind of crap wages the big corporations offer them.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015(1 comments)The Deficits Republicans Don't Want to Talk About
Our federal deficit has been slashed by more than two-thirds since President Obama took office, and deficits over the next decade are going to be around $4.7 trillion lower than what the Congress Budget Office estimated just four years ago. Instead of focusing on a federal deficit that's at its lowest point in years, Republicans should instead be focusing on the United States' real deficit problem.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015(7 comments)The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Sink the Middle Class
Two decades of free-trade deals have eviscerated the middle class and bloodied the "American dream." If President Obama goes ahead and signs us onto another free-trade deal, especially one as destructive as the TPP, that will be like tying a cement block to the feet of a drowning man.

Friday, January 23, 2015(19 comments)Is John Boehner a Traitor, a Criminal?
So, why is Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu such a big deal? First off, it's a huge violation of protocol and massively disrespectful to President Obama and the authority of the executive branch. It is completely unprecedented for the Speaker of the House, or any member of Congress, to invite a foreign leader to come to the US and speak to Congress without getting authorization and/or cooperation from the White House.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015(2 comments)Thom Hartmann's State of the Union
Thanks to the disastrous Citizen's United decision, the conservatives in the Supreme Court chambers have made it easy for billionaires to flood our democracy with the corporate cash which is slowly destroying the democratic principles that our founding fathers fought and died for. We must get behind the issues that really matter -- and get the US back on the path to success and shared prosperity.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015(20 comments)Four Ways Republicans Are Trying to Take Us Back to the Jim Crow Era
During the Jim Crow era, it was pretty much impossible for black people to vote. While the Constitution banned voter discrimination based on race, Southern states got around this ban by using tricks and tests to keep African-Americans way from the polls.
These weren't fair tests, either -- they were designed to make people fail.

Thursday, January 8, 2015(3 comments)Let's Call All Terrorists "Terrorists"
Politicians and the media have universally condemned the gunmen as "terrorists" and called their actions "terrorism." And for good reason, too: the killing of unarmed civilians for apparently political or religious reasons is the classic definition of terrorism. But would people be as willing to call the Paris attack "terrorism" if the suspects involved were white or members of a right-wing hate group? I don't think so.

Thursday, January 1, 2015(14 comments)The True Costs of Corporate Welfare
If we're serious about going after "welfare queens" in the US, to use Ronald Reagan's phrase, then let's start by going after the corporations and industries that use the Walmart business model of paying such low wages that their employees qualify for welfare benefits.

Saturday, December 13, 2014(3 comments)Is the Koch Brothers' Curriculum Coming to Your Child's School?
The curriculum being taught to North Carolina students is filled with the Koch brothers' libertarian beliefs and ideologies, and a whole lot of misinformation on US history. A great deal of the curriculum focuses on the libertarian love affair with "limited government."

Tuesday, December 9, 2014(4 comments)How Democrats in the South Will Rise Again
While the demise of the "Southern Democrat" may be historic, it doesn't have to be permanent. Americans across the country, in red states from the Deep South to the Great Plains, favor the progressive ideas and policies that can get our country back on track. Someone just needs to reach out to them.

Friday, December 5, 2014(3 comments)We Need to Start Holding Tax-Dodging Banksters Accountable
Giant corporations like Apple and Google have come under fire in both the UK and the US recently for raking in massive profits, while shifting those profits overseas to avoid taxes. A report by the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco Systems collectively earn interest while avoiding taxes on over $124 billion that's held overseas.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014(1 comments)Why Black Friday Is a Bad Sign for the US
Median household income has fallen by nearly 8 percent since 2000, and, according to the US Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of overall income in the US than ever before. One of the reasons for that is because good jobs and good wages have disappeared.

Thursday, November 27, 2014(13 comments)Can Democrats Set Out a New Path?
For several generations, Americans trusted our government's ability to improve living conditions for the working class. As a result, Democrats stayed in power for a long time. Then Reagan happened, and everything changed. The Democratic Party veered way off course while Reagan was president, and abandoned its working-class base.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014(2 comments)Why the Mainstream Media Is Gung-Ho on War and Silencing Antiwar Voices
Why is it that the mainstream media is so gung-ho about promoting war and military intervention, and so quick to silence antiwar voices? It's because we no longer have news in this country. We have infotainment. Infotainment lacks patriotism or humanism - it cares neither about the good of our nation or its people. It's instead exclusively about getting the most eyeballs, and bringing in the most dollars.

Saturday, November 15, 2014(10 comments)Conservatives Lie About Net Neutrality for Big Bucks
The whole idea behind net neutrality is a free and open internet. It's the notion that we should all have equal access to the internet, and shouldn't be forced to pay more for certain types of content. It's the idea that internet giants like Comcast and AT&T shouldn't be able to charge us more if want to watch a movie on Netflix or a viral video on YouTube.

Thursday, November 13, 2014(3 comments)Is George W. Bush Responsible for the Death of Tomas Young?
Tomas Young was right. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are guilty of murder, including his. They knowingly sent thousands of young Americans to die in a fight that was a based on a lie, a lie they cooked up to fuel their own political ambitions and to save the finances of Halliburton.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014(2 comments)Time to Say Goodbye to Judicial Overreach
Subsidies are a major aspect of Obamacare, and if the conservative justices on the Supreme Court were to rule against them in this case, millions of US citizens will lose the health-care coverage they got under Obamacare. The frivolous nature of this challenge to Obamacare is pretty clear, and you would think that the Supreme Court would recognize that, and would have refused to hear the case.

Thursday, November 6, 2014(52 comments)The Fatal Flaw With Democracy
What we did with prisons, with voting machines, and with the surveillance state are all things that we've now done with our election system: we've privatized, outsourced, and corporatized it, with similarly disastrous results. The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.

Thursday, October 30, 2014(2 comments)What Has Greed Cost the United States?
There should be no place for raw, naked greed in in the US. It should be tightly regulated and controlled -- it should be seen as the mental illness and social illness that it is. Greed is not what our country was founded on, it certainly isn't what it was built on, and it's not what's going to make the US great again.

Thursday, October 23, 2014(13 comments)Time to Rethink the War on Terror
Ultimately, war only fuels more terrorism abroad and erodes freedom at home. So let's stop this "War on Terror" business once-and-for-all and start fighting terrorism with law enforcement like sensible people. We're the land of the free and the home of the brave. Let's start acting like it.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014(40 comments)The Lost Generation
Before lawmakers in Washington got hooked on Reaganomics and libertarian economics, our country never had a student loan debt crisis. To compound their problem, while millenials are struggling to pay off their student loan debt, they're also struggling to find employment, another consequence of libertarian economics.

Friday, October 17, 2014(1 comments)The Real Rick Scott Debate Scandal
Because of decisions made during the Reagan and Clinton administrations, our media is now an infotainment mess. This makes us all vulnerable to hustler politicians who've figured out that media that cares about ratings over news will always go with the bright, shiny things - like an argument over an electric fan on-stage -- instead of real issues that affect all of our lives.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014(4 comments)Is This "American Exceptionalism"?
The US is lagging behind in education and health care, we are leading the world in one thing: violence. According to a study by two New York City doctors, the United States has a staggering 88 guns for every 100 people, and has 10 gun-violence related deaths per every 100,000 people.

Friday, September 26, 2014(29 comments)It's Time for the US Middle Class to Make a Comeback
We need to get the middle class back on track. That starts by introducing trade policies that protect American jobs, tax policies that even the playing field, adopting policies that make life-saving health care more affordable and education policies that make a college education a reality instead of a pipe dream for millions of Americans.

Thursday, September 25, 2014(28 comments)Time for the US to Dump the Word "Homeland"
While Germans still won't say it, the word "homeland" is everywhere in the United States. Bush and Cheney rolled it out in a big way after 9/11, and our media managed to completely ignore the dark history of the word. Let's rename the Department of "Homeland" Security, and remove from the United States' self-description this dark, strange and creepy term.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014(8 comments)How the Defense Industry Bankrolls Pro-War Pundits
Townsend has positions with two investment firms that deal with defense contractor money, and also serves as an advisor for the defense contractor Decision Sciences. Again, is it really a surprise that, given her connections and work history, Ms. Townsend is on CNN saying that the US needs to use more military might against ISIS?

Thursday, September 11, 2014(42 comments)Why We Need to Prosecute Our Torturers
Dick Cheney is a war criminal and a liar, and should be rotting in a prison cell in The Hague, not giving motivational speeches to Republican lawmakers who're trying to look tough during an election year. The fact that he isn't in jail, though, and the fact that he is making motivational speeches shows how badly we've never come to terms with either the Bush administration or its crimes.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014(6 comments)Time to Get Rid of Racist Policing in the United States
We need to provide more funding for community policing programs that encourage police officers to become members of the community, instead of feared figures. It's time to get rid of the United States' racist policing double-standards.

Sunday, September 7, 2014(2 comments)Economic Terrorism by Paid Goons
It's now harder than ever before to join a union, thanks to the decades-long War on Labor that conservatives have been waging ever since Ronald Reagan came to Washington. And they've been waging that war with help from "right to work laws," which should properly and accurately be called "right to work for less" laws, and from the multibillion dollar-a-year union-busting industry.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014(6 comments)The GOP War on Workers Has Killed Again
The US is the richest country on the planet, and there's absolutely no reason that working people should be living in poverty. The working class has been and always will be the backbone of the American economy, and conservatives in Washington need to accept that fact. It's time to end the 34-year-old war on working people in the US, and give all Americans an equal shot at success.

Saturday, August 30, 2014(78 comments)You Don't Know What "Libertarian" Means
Libertarians want to abolish Social Security, screw over working-class Americans, and take all the money that would go towards Social Security and invest it in Wall Street, so that their wallets can get even bigger. There's over $2.5 trillion sitting in the Social Security Trust Fund right now. They don't want to have any responsibility for society. Screw society!

Thursday, August 28, 2014(6 comments)A Rising Tide Only Lifts All Boats When Everyone Has a Boat
Poverty is not a disease, it's not a "culture," and it's not something you can solve just by telling poor people to work harder. Poverty, at its core, is really just a lack of resources. Poor people aren't poor because they're lazy and don't know how to work; poor people are poor because they don't have the resources (aka money) to afford things like housing, food, and education that are essential to living a good life.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014(9 comments)A Carbon Tax Is Absolutely Essential
We need to slow down climate change and global warming, to protect our planet's ability to support human life. A report put out by the Citizens Climate Lobby shows that a $10 carbon tax would cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 28 percent. if we want to save our planet and the human race from the greatest threat we've ever faced, a carbon tax is absolutely essential. It's that simple.

Thursday, August 21, 2014The Ferguson Effect on Our Great-Grandchildren
We must confront America's racism and poverty epidemics head-on and start building a larger and more inclusive middle class, so that communities like Ferguson can leave the stress of poverty behind. At the same time, we need to be creating a safer world, free of major stressors like wars, violence, and militarized police occupations. Basically, we need to be working towards a more nurturing society.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014(1 comments)Advice for "Meet the Press"
Since the show underestimates its audience, it brings on guests who really can't contribute much to serious debates. Similarly, the show rarely brings on experts on individual issues. Instead, it relies on political pundits, strategists, and analysts who are just reciting either bumper stickers or conventional wisdom.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014(18 comments)Another Unarmed Black Teen Shot by Militarized Police
From New York to Los Angeles to Ferguson, Missouri, America's police forces are being increasingly viewed as violent occupying armies, and it's time to change that. It's time to bring the good cops back.

Thursday, August 7, 2014(3 comments)Is Google the New Sheriff in Town?
Our government doesn't do a great job of respecting the privacy of Americans. But the difference between a private corporation like Google and a government agency like the Post Office is that the Post Office is ultimately answerable to "We the People." We need to have a serious debate about this before the power of tech giants to act like law enforcement gets way out of control.

Saturday, August 2, 2014(11 comments)Doomsday Trigger for Megadrought?
It's possible that all of the American southwest could soon be seeing the devastating drought conditions that Californians are facing. That's because the largest surge of heat ever recorded moving west to east in the Pacific Ocean, often referred to as a Kelvin Wave, which was supposed to start an El Niño and bring tropical-like rains to the West Coast and southwest, just dissipated.

Friday, July 25, 2014The Rise of the Bankster Landlord
The financial products Wall Street is creating with its new rental empire are basically a re-hashed version of the mortgage-backed securities that crashed our economy five years ago. There's a new bubble in the works, and if we're not careful, we could see another financial crisis sooner than you might think.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014(2 comments)Rich rats hijacked our democracy
As the wealthy elite and corporations are profiting off of their investments in Washington, the rest of us are living in a very different America than we had just a generation ago. It's now an America that, despite its great wealth, looks more and more like a third-world country each day.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014Why Do Banksters Get Help but Not Homeowners?
Under the agreement, Citigroup will most likely get a $500 million tax write-off. And in pre-market trading on Monday, Citigroup stocks rose by nearly 4 percent, despite the $7 billion agreement. This is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for Citigroup; basically a cost of doing business.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014(43 comments)What West Virginia Can Learn From Sarah Palin
It's time for every state to follow Sarah Palin's Alaska model, and put in place state carbon taxes that cycle money back to the people, reduce income inequality, and spur local economic growth. It will reduce poverty and help save us all from global warming -- a definite two-fer!

Friday, July 4, 2014(2 comments)The Crash of 2016 Gets Closer Every Day
Until the corporate elite and our billionaire class are under control, and our working class once again can enter the middle class, we stand at the precipice of a great crash. Without vigorous governmental action to radically reduce student and working family debt, increase wages, and suppress speculation, that crash comes closer to us every day.

Thursday, June 26, 2014(1 comments)Hate Summer? Just Wait Until Global Warming Really Kicks In
According to Michael Mann, one of the world's leading climate scientists, we only have until 2036 to prevent the Earth's temperature from rising 2 degrees Celsius. After that, global warming will lock in with devastating consequences for every single living thing on this planet. Serious scientific bodies are even debating whether or not industrial civilization can survive such a drastic temperature increase.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014(9 comments)The GOP Is the Pro-Death Party
Despite pretty solid evidence showing that conservative policies drive up suicides, lawmakers like Bobby Jindal are just fine continuing to help big business and the wealthy elite, while screwing over everyone else. It's time to save American lives, and stop the Party of Death.

Thursday, June 19, 2014(14 comments)Dick Cheney Should be Rotting in The Hague, Not Writing Editorials
There is no one in recent history who has disgraced our country quite like Dick Cheney has. He lied his way into an illegal war, profited off that war, and shredded the Constitution. He's a war criminal and has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on his hands. Dick Cheney should be rotting in a prison cell at The Hague, not writing editorials for the Wall Street Journal.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014(15 comments)Healthcare: Let's Have People over Profits Once And For All
There are some things in this world that shouldn't be turned into profit-making machines, and healthcare is definitely one of them. There was a time in America when in almost every state health insurance companies and hospitals were required to be non-profits. Americans could actually get the healthcare and treatment they needed at affordable prices. But then Ronald Reagan came to Washington, and everything changed.

Thursday, June 12, 2014(13 comments)The Dark Money Machine That Beat Eric Cantor
Once you've realized that David Brat wasn't just some random college professor but was actually the hand-picked candidate of the libertarian billionaire class and its army of talk radio hosts, it's easy to see another one of the major reasons Eric Cantor lost.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014(8 comments)Fox News Has Finally Yelled Fire in a Crowded Theater
Unfortunately, the media refuses to acknowledge right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism in our country, even though they pose a bigger threat to our national security than jihadists and Islamic extremists. The fact is, right-wing extremism is on the rise, it's dangerous, and it's now a major terrorist force in America.

Thursday, June 5, 2014(28 comments)Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Ever since President Obama was first elected president back in 2007, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" machine that Hillary Clinton first pointed out way back in 1998, has been churning out conspiracy after conspiracy, no matter how bizarre or outlandish they may be, all intended to take down President Obama.

Saturday, May 31, 2014(17 comments)Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism?
Saying that America is "exceptional" because we actually follow international law and advocate peace is to say that all countries can fit that definition and it sets a good example for the rest of the world. This doesn't make us weaker; it makes us stronger because it reaffirms the same values that make America so special to begin with.